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At Kisalizi Primary School in Nakasongola District, Uganda, the issues of student hunger, student and teacher absenteeism and high student teacher ratios were compromising student performance. Ronald Musisi, one of the teachers, said that, for 7 years, there had been no new teachers until the first Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) gathering was held in March 2009. Four months later, after extensive community lobbying, four new teachers were hired, increasing the number of teachers to 12 for 545 pupils.

Sam Mbangire, the District school inspector, said that the CVA meetings and community lobbying played a significant role in the recruitments.

“There was a lot of pressure on the District, including from the politicians. The meeting was very important and we had to act,” said Mbangire. “Everybody has a role as a stakeholder. It’s [also] their duty to remind us and to exercise their rights.”

Another significant result has been the improved academic performance. In 2009, before the CVA gathering, there were 23 students in the final year of primary school and only one student passed the final exam. In 2010, 27 students sat and passed the final exam. For the first time in the school’s history most of the 27 students achieved Grade 3. In Uganda, there are 5 grades distinguishing performances, beginning at the lowest performance of Grade 5 up to a distinctive performance at Grade 1.

One of the key issues, student hunger, was linked to poor academic performance, so parents now make small cash contributions for school lunches.

Paul Muwanga, a 17-year-old student, now in secondary school, said that students’ poor performance was caused by hunger.

“Before, we were always thinking about food. We were hungry,” said Muwanga.

Sekitto Livingstone, chairman of the School Management Committee, said the role of all stakeholders was important. “Parents are contributing more because they are more aware through the CVA gathering. Before, they were not taking it seriously.”

At Kambugu Primary School, the situation had deteriorated so much that many parents were withdrawing their students from the school and enrolling them in private schools. Since CVA activities started, additional teachers have been hired and parents believe the quality of teaching has improved, leading to better academic performance. As a consequence, many parents have re-enrolled their students at the school.

One of those parents was Erias Ssewankambo, a local politician. He said, “There was improved teaching and I thought they would miss out on what was happening here if I left them at the other school. When you go to the district they talk about Kambugu Primary School because of what is happening here. We are seeing a lot of improvements from before especially among the teachers who were suffering.”

Kigozi Denis, another local politician and parent, declared the school the “best” in the whole sub-county because “there is now a relationship between teachers and parents.” Enrolment has steadily increased each year from 400 in 2009 when CVA activities were first introduced to 712 in 2012.

In sum, the work of these communities has demonstrated that ordinary people indeed have the power to transform education systems that are so crucial to a child’s future. Today, the question is how to scale the methodology.

In December 2011, the Ugandan Commissioner for Education Planning stated his intention to see the CVA methodology applied to all public primary schools. Like Uganda, World Vision is considering how to scale the Citizen Voice and Action methodology globally in order to further the organization’s goal to improve the lives of children.